Trump Bypasses Supreme Court Loss With New EOs Stripping Foreign Lobbyist Birthright Citizenship

President Donald Trump has signed two new executive orders narrowing birthright citizenship in the United States, directly targeting the children of registered foreign lobbyists, so‑called 'alien enemies', members of foreign terrorist organisations and parents who fraudulently obtain tourist visas to give birth on American soil.

The move comes just weeks after the Supreme Court struck down his first attempt to curb the 14th Amendment, which has guaranteed citizenship to almost all people born in the US since 1868.

Second Attempt After Stinging Court Defeat

Signed in Washington on Thursday, the orders mark Trump's latest effort to test the boundaries of the constitutional guarantee. They follow a heavy defeat for the White House in June, when a divided Supreme Court reaffirmed that the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to virtually everyone born on American soil, including children of undocumented immigrants.

Writing for the 5‑4 majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the framers intended the amendment to cover 'virtually all people born on US soil', with only narrow exceptions such as the children of diplomats.

That ruling invalidated Trump's first‑day executive order from the start of his second term, which had sought to deny automatic citizenship to children of parents in the country illegally or on temporary visas.

The policy had already been blocked by multiple lawsuits from Democrat‑led states and immigrant rights groups before the justices formally struck it down.

Speaking in the Oval Office alongside deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Trump criticised the Supreme Court's decision as 'very unfair' and said the country 'suffers because of it', adding: 'We're ending it a different way.'

Birth Tourism Put in the Crosshairs

Miller framed the new measures as a crackdown on birth tourism, claiming visa applicants often falsely cite tourism as their reason for travel when their true intention is to give birth to a child who would automatically gain US citizenship.

He argued such misrepresentation constitutes visa fraud, invalidating both the visa and any citizenship claim.

The administration says the birth tourism order draws on presidential authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to regulate international travel.

Limited Reach and Looming Court Battles

The orders are expected to face immediate legal challenges, and analysts say their practical effect would be far smaller than Trump's original policy even if they survive court scrutiny.

Only a few thousand people are registered as foreign lobbyists with the US Justice Department, and officials acknowledge there are currently no significant populations formally designated as 'alien enemies' or foreign terrorists residing in the country, compared with an estimated 15 million undocumented immigrants nationwide.

There is no official government data on birth tourism, but figures from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, analysed by the Migration Policy Institute, show fewer than 10,000 of the roughly 3.6 million babies born in America in 2024 had mothers listing foreign addresses.

Legal scholars say the new orders sit uneasily with the Supreme Court's ruling. Amanda Frost, an immigration law professor at the University of Virginia, said Trump could not lawfully deny citizenship to children of birth tourists even where a mother had violated immigration law to enter the country.

David Bier of the Cato Institute said attempts to classify undocumented immigrants as 'enemies' had no basis in the justices' reasoning, none of whom, he noted, treated illegal immigration as an 'invasion'.

He predicted the orders would meet the same fate as their predecessor, tied up and ultimately defeated in the courts.